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Scientists chemically analyze historic mummy-based medicinal wine
404 Media reports that Marburg University researchers chemically linked historic Mumia vera products, once mixed with wine, to mummified remains and embalming residues.
Researchers at Marburg University chemically analyzed historic products sold as Mumia vera aegyptiaca, a medicine once made by grinding material from Egyptian mummies and mixing it with wine or other liquids, 404 Media reported Friday in a weekly science roundup1.
404 Media said the concoction circulated in Arabic and European markets for centuries, with claims of medicinal benefit, while its exact composition and pharmacology stayed unclear1.
The outlet, citing researchers co-led by Tim Berger and Amira Naimi of Marburg University, said the team examined historical Mumia vera products, mummified body parts, embalming residues, bandages, and two mummified skulls1.
Formulas varied widely, 404 Media reported, including one powdered product that appeared to have been derived from a mummified head1.
The researchers said an apparently uninformative powdered material can be chemically linked to a specific mummified head, according to the report1.
They also said linking historical texts, material culture, molecular composition, and bioactivity can help decode historic medicines and reconstruct the biographies of human remains and museum objects, 404 Media reported1.
404 Media did not name the journal, the number of samples, or the laboratory methods, and it did not report what, if any, biological activity the extracts showed1.
The account appears in a Halloween-themed Abstract column that also summarized unrelated papers on comet impacts, exoplanet sea ice, and hugging; independent confirmation of the mummy analysis was not in the assignment1.
